Desk chairmats for office and home use are well known. Such chairmats typically have a main portion on which the desk chair rolls, and a forward lip portion which is adapted to extend partially under the desk well, and on which the feet of the person sitting in the chair may rest. Desk chairmats which are to be applied over carpeting typically have short but relatively sharp spikes on the undersides thereof which hold the mats firmly in place.
The above described desk chairmats, and particularly those with spikes, are difficult to carry and/or otherwise handle due to their relatively large size and the semi-rigid nature of the material from which they are formed. Unless the chairmat is boxed or otherwise protected, the user typically carries the chairmat by gripping about one or two of the edges of the chairmat, often resulting in irritation if not injury to the hands, due to the spikes projecting from the underside of the chairmat.
Some attempts have been made to solve the problem, but only to the extent of making the chairmats foldable to thereby reduce their size for handling purposes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,428 and commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,888.
For the most part, desk chairmats have been sold at office supply stores or distributors as opposed to retail stores, so that to some extent, the handling problem was alleviated by boxing the chairmats individually or in groups prior to shipping. However, even when supplied from a distributor in boxed form, the end user has to remove the chairmat from the box and carry it to its final destination, again, with some difficulty due to the physical attributes of the chairmat. In any event, chairmats are now being found increasingly in retail outlets, compounding the problem and while it is recognized that the chairmats may be boxed, the fact is that boxes add cost and are themselves unwieldy, and are therefore not likely to be used to any great extent in the retail environment. Thus, with increasing retail activity, new displays are also required. Conventional chairmats, because of their bulky and somewhat unwieldy configuration, present display problems since, absent the use of boxes, they do not stand alone unless wound. Even standing on edge in a wound or partially wound state, however, the mats are relatively unstable and, in any event, this is not a viable display arrangement.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a solution to the problem of transporting desk chairmats easily and safely, particularly those chairmats which have carpet spikes, and to the problem of displaying and stocking chairmats in a retail environment.